It is known in the art to produce ether by the reaction of an alcohol and an olefin. It is also known in the art to produce high octane hydrocarbons by an HF alkylation reaction of an olefin and an isoparaffin. Both the ether and the alkylate are valuable fuel feedstocks.
It is also known in the art to produce MTBE (methyl tertiary butyl ether) by reacting butylenes and methanol and to charge the unreacted butylenes to an alkylation plant in which the butylenes and an isoparaffin such as isobutane are reacted to form high octane gasoline components.
Whereas the above discussed technologies have been developed to a rather mature stage, several problems have remained. Thus, the combination process of ether formation and alkylation outlined above has the disadvantage that the olefin stream coming from the ether production may entrain dissolved materials which are either harmful to the alkylation reaction as such or which tend to be released in the fractionation of the alkylation product in gaseous form thus entraining, for instance, HF and/or propane.